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Posted Mar 17, 2015 by William Murphy

Today's Daily Quest comes courtesy of our own Rob "Grakulen" Lashley:

Final Fantasy Type-0 HD released today and with it the preview to the highly anticipated Final Fantasy XV. I have yet to play XV and I have avoided most of the videos surrounding it so I will play it tonight with a fresh perspective. This game has been in development for the better part of a decade, so long in fact most people have given up on this title ever seeing the light of day. I started following it when it was still known as FFXIII Versus. Hopefully we will see its full retail release sometime this year but I think it is safe to say that it may not be until 2016 before it hits shelves.

The state of development of FFXV isn’t what today’s daily quest is all about though.

My question is how far should a developer be able to stray from their original IP before it’s no longer acceptable to continue to call a game by the series’ original name. I’m all for progress. I don’t want to continue to play the same game for the next 20 years, but is XV really a Final Fantasy? Was XIII and all its versions for that matter? XV is now a full time combat role playing game that has touch points that can be found across most Final Fantasies: Summons, Crystals, etc…. But is this still the same series?

Final Fantasy started off as a high fantasy JRPG that the highest level of technology involved was airships. Square Enix has left the high fantasy in the past with the turn based combat and evolved into an action RPG with a dystopian future full of emo tweens. I’m not saying this is bad, but I am asking is this so different that it warrants to be called something else?

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William Murphy / Bill is the Managing Editor of MMORPG.com, RTSGuru.com, and lover of all things gaming. He's been playing and writing about MMOs and geekery since 2002, and you can harass him and his views on Twitter @thebillmurphy.